The volume of transportation of transit cargoes through the network of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) in 2015 will be the lowest in the past five years. This forecast is contained in materials from the Ministry of Infrastructure regarding evaluation of the railway cargo base, RZhD-Partner reports.

Thus, the transit cargo turnover through Ukrzaliznytsia’s network this year will be 29.3 billion ton-kilometers, which is 4.2% less than the turnover in 2014.

This indicator fell by 9% in 2014 and by 16% in 2013.

According to the ministry’s assessment, the main source of transit cargoes for the country’s railway will remain the member-countries of the Customs Union, which account for about 90% of the transit cargoes passing through Ukraine. Bulk cargoes such as ore, crude oil, coal, bulk fertilizers, and others account for most of these transit cargoes.

The volume of transit of crude oil is expected to reduce; the main reason for this is the reorientation of Russian crude oil to the southern ports of Russia. Transit of Russian fertilizer will also reduce; the reason for this is the fall in global demand for nitrogen fertilizers.